WRTG 394 students,
The following scenario describes a
communication situation in a workplace. The situation does not involve
writing. Rather, it involves verbal communication.
Feeling rushed by a
looming deadline for a report her manager wanted right away, Jory asked
Saul to help by getting her some marketing statistics. “I need the
figures from the last three years,” she said. “Will that be a problem?”
“Not at all,” Saul replied.
But by mid-day, Saul
had still not gotten the statistics to Jory—and her report was due
first thing in the morning. Saul was out, so she left him a voicemail:
“This is Jory,” she said. “I was wondering, how soon do you think you
can get me those stats for the marketing report?”
Two hours later, Jory received an e-mail from Saul: “I’ll have those stats to you the day after tomorrow.”
Jory called Saul again, relieved to find that he was in his office. “Friday’s too late,” she said. “The report’s due tomorrow.”
“Why didn’t you say
you needed them so soon?” Saul said. “I’m sorry, but I have to leave in
twenty minutes, and I’m at an off-site meeting all day tomorrow.”
Jory thought she had
told Saul what she wanted, and Saul thought he had heard her. But no
real communication took place in this situation, and now Jory is left
without the statistics she needs to complete her report.
Taken from Chan, J. (2009). Chapter 1: Communication: The Key to a Manager’s Success. In, Communication Skills for Managers, 5th Edition (pp. 1-10). American Management Association International.
Please answer the following questions:
1. What happened in this situation? What did the Sender perceive, and what did the Receiver perceive?
2. Comment on Jory’s priorities and Saul’s priorities. How did they differ, and how did those differences inform this situation?
3. Have
you experienced a similar situation in your workplace or community
interactions? If so, briefly describe the situation (without divulging
people’s names, the names of organizations, etc.) A short paragraph will
suffice in answering this question.
4. Assume you are Jory. Please write
a memo asking Saul for the information. Don’t worry about the
formatting of the memo for this discussion. Simply type the content of
your memo to Saul.
Please feel free to interact with others on their answers to any one of these questions.
Thanks!
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